reveals to him the essential beauty of all women. And it was
characteristic of Evanthia to swim back to the bath-house steps and go
in to dress, leaving them there to talk for a moment.

"Say, Esther, where does your husband go every night? Why don't he come
home and eat early?"

"He go to some club," she said, blowing a jet of smoke upwards. "He very
fond of his club. He read plenty book, my 'usban'."

"What sort of books?"

"I don' know. Politics, Science, Philosophy. You go to that club, too.
Your friend the Englishman, him with Armenian wife, he go there."

"I know he does. I was thinkin' about it. But it's a long way out here
at night."

Esther laughed, a low husky chuckle, as she rose, flung away the
cigarette and ran back to the bath house.

"Oh-ho! You love Evanthia too much!" she flung over her firm vigorous
shoulder.

He knew by now that she meant "very much"; and as he followed her he
agreed she was right. He had reached that stage when the past and the
future were both obliterated by the intense vitality of existence. Only
the never-ending desire to get her away into his own environment, to see
her against a familiar background, held him to the plan he had worked
out to get away. And it was the source of much of his irony in later,
more prosperous years that he had come to see how essentially egotism
and male vanity that never-ending desire happened to be. He saw the
sharp cleavage, as one sees a fault in a range of cliffs at a distance,
between his love and his pride. He saw that the fear in his heart was
for himself all the time, lest he should not come out of the adventure
with his pride entire.

But that evening he was absorbed in his emotions, saturated with the
rich and coloured shadows of the valley, the tremendous loom of the
mountains and the vast obscurity of the sea. And as they crossed the
road he put his hand on her shoulder while Esther moved on ahead in the
dusk to prepare the evening meal. And they stood for a moment in the
road, facing the huge lift of the earth towards the great golden stars,
silent in the oncoming darkness. They heard the deep booming bark of a
watch-dog far up the valley, a sound like the clang of metal plates on
earthen floors. She looked at him with a characteristic quick turn of
the head, her body poised as though for flight.

"Promise you will come," he said thickly, holding to her tightly as
though she were the stronger. "Can't you understand? I _must_ go